The Simon City Royals (SCR’s) were a major northside Chicago street gang. The SCR’s in the mid-1970's found their leadership prosecuted, convicted, and doing time in Illinois Department of Corrections. The SCR’s had great drug connections, and the GD’s (a predominantly black gang) had the best “clout” in terms of protection inside the prisons. Larry Hoover extended a unique cross-racial “gang alliance” to the SCR’s under a quid pro quo arrangement: the GD’s would be able to buy SCR drugs at established discount prices (SCR drug connections provided a better quality product in terms of the purity of the drug, e.g., cocaine in particular), and in return the SCR would be considered “folks” just like the GD’s, and thus all GD’s would be required to “protect” their fellow folks, even if these “folks” were white. To the SCR’s, this was a remarkably good deal: and the SCR’s quickly folded into the GD alliance. The SCR’s became a folks gang, and they developed a formalized constitution with the “six points” alliance (Folks).Identifiers/symbols:

Guard gets probation in Simon City Royals case

A prison guard recruited by the Simon City Royals street gang to smuggle contraband into the Racine Correctional Institution was sentenced Monday to three years of probation.

In making the probation recommendation, Assistant District Attorney Grant Huebner told Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Kevin Martens that the now former guard, John Champion, has been instrumental in the Simon City Royals investigation.

He noted that Champion, as a former prison guard, would be highly motivated to follow the terms of his probation and avoid incarceration.

"I am deeply ashamed of my actions," Champion told Martens.

Champion, 40, of Oak Creek, was one of 15 members and one associate of the Royals charged in September with a variety of offenses, including racketeering, loan-sharking, drug dealing and battery.

In June, Champion pleaded guilty to one felony count of delivering illegal articles to an inmate.

Champion joined the gang in 2005, when the head of the gang's Wisconsin chapter, Anthony Lubrano, was an inmate in Racine.